Meet Chick Best - a middle-aged, self-absorbed, disaffected, California dot.com millionaire with a trophy wife. Though concerned about his life and family, Chick resigns himself to a miserable state of acceptance, until he experiences unrequited love at first sight - which leads to deadly consequences.

On the Grind: Shane Scully

Charged with misconduct in a high-profile solicitation of murder case, Scully is forced to resign from the LAPD or face criminal prosecution. His wife Alexa leaves him, seeking a divorce for his alleged dalliance with the accused in the case, a well-known Hollywood actress. His son, Chooch, horrified by these events, won't speak to him.

Cold Hit

Shane Scully and his partner are assigned to the case of "the Fingertip Killer", a serial murderer preying on homeless veterans in Los Angeles. Every two weeks he strikes: he beats his victims, then shoots them in the back of the head. Once they're dead, he cuts off their fingertips, closes their eyes, and tosses them in the river.

White Sister: A Shane Scully Novel

Leaving L.A.'s Parker Center, Shane Scully and his wife, Alexa, agree to meet at home in one hour. Shane gets there; Alexa doesn't. In the middle of the night, he's called to a crime scene on Mulholland Drive: The African-American victim, who appears to be a Crip gangbanger, has been executed gangland style. Shockingly, the body is in Alexa's car and her gun is found nearby. But Alexa is missing.

Three Shirt Deal: A Shane Scully Novel

Truit Hickman is a small-time crook doing life in California's notoriously brutal Corcoran State Prison for the murder of his mother. He admitted to the crime, but now Hickman claims his confession was coerced by the cops. A beautiful Internal Affairs detective, Secada "Scout" Llevar, asks Shane Scully to help investigate.

The Pallbearers: A Shane Scully Novel

Abandoned by his parents as an infant, Scully was reared in an orphanage, Huntington House. The only positive thing in his young life was the attention of the Home’s director, Walter “Pop” Dix. Pop, an avid surfer, would take a small group of kids for early morning surfing. He was the father none of them ever had. That was 30 years ago. Now, Shane is forced to revisit these memories when Pop is found dead, the victim of an apparently self-inflicted shotgun blast.

Vigilante

Lita Mendez was a thorn in the LAPD’s side. An aggressive police critic and gang activist, she’d filed countless complaints against the department. So when she’s found dead in her home, Shane and Hitch fear the worst: that there’s a killer in their ranks.Outside the crime scene, Nixon Nash, the charismatic host of a hit reality show called Vigilante TV, has set up shop with his television crew. Nash’s show is dedicated to beating the cops at their own game, solving murders before they can. Now he has the murder of Lita Mendez in his sights....

The Prostitutes' Ball

It’s a few days before Christmas when Detective Shane Scully and his wife, Alexa, respond to a call in the Hollywood Hills. The crime scene is the pristine backyard swimming pool of a once immaculate mansion on Skyline Drive, the site of an infamous murder decades prior, in which a family was killed in cold blood on Christmas Eve. In the ensuing years, the house has been shuttered and left exactly as it stood on that terrible night.

Vertical Coffin: A Shane Scully Novel

In Shane Scully's most terrifying case to date, two elite SWAT units from the L.A. Sheriff's Department and the ATF appear to be engaged in a deadly midnight war. Officers from both agencies are being sniped at and murdered in vertical coffins. As the violence escalates, the mayor directs the LAPD, the only uninvolved and unbiased law enforcement agency, to investigate. Shane's wife, Alexa, under orders from Chief Tony Filosiani, assigns him to the case.

The Viking Funeral

Driving along the freeway, LAPD Sergeant Shane Scully glances over and sees at the wheel of a neighboring car his oldest friend and LAPD colleague, Jody Dean. Why is Scully so surprised? Because it's been two years since Jody committed suicide. Now Shane is confronted by the bizarre truth: Jody and five other cops thought to be dead are anything but.

The Tin Collectors

L.A. police detective Shane Scully comes under investigation by Internal Affairs (derisively known as "the tin collectors") after he kills his ex-partner who was one of the mayor's bodyguards. Temporarily reassigned, so that he can remain under the department's watchful eye, Scully finds that more than his badge is at stake when he is set up to take the rap in a deadly plot of corruption and conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of the LAPD.

Hollywood Tough: A Shane Scully Novel

At a Hollywood party with his wife, Alexa, Detective Shane Scully overhears a famous producer make a suspicious remark about the strange deaths of his two ex-wives. This becomes more than just police business, because the party is to celebrate the engagement of the producer to Alexa's closest friend. Against his wife's wishes, Shane begins to look into his past.

Woman with a Gun: A Novel

Visiting an art museum displaying a retrospective of acclaimed photographer Kathy Moran's work, aspiring novelist Stacey Kim is stunned by the photo at the center of the show - the famous Woman with a Gun, which won a Pulitzer Prize and launched the photographer's career. Shot from behind, the enigmatic black-and-white image is a picture of a woman in a wedding dress, standing on the shore at night, facing the sea. Behind her back, she holds a six-shooter.

The Millionaires

Charlie and Oliver Caruso are brothers who work at Greene & Greene, a private bank so exclusive you need two million dollars just to be a client. But when the door of success slams in their faces, they're faced with an offer they can't refuse: three million dollars in an abandoned account. No one knows it exists, and even better, it doesn't belong to anyone.

Lucid Intervals: A Stone Barrington Novel

It seems like just another quiet night at Elaine's. Stone Barrington and his former cop partner, Dino, are enjoying some pasta when in walks former client and all around sad sack Herbie Fisher...with a briefcase containing $14 million in cash.

Found: Mickey Bolitar, Book 3

It's been eight months since Mickey Bolitar witnessed the shocking, tragic death of his father. Eight months of lies, dark secrets, and unanswered questions. While he desperately wants answers, Mickey's sophomore year of high school brings on a whole new set of troubles. Spoon is in the hospital, Rachel won't tell him where he stands, his basketball teammates hate him... and then there's Ema's surprise announcement: She has an online boyfriend, and he's vanished.

The Attorney: Paul Madriani, Book 5

Martini delivers Paul Madriani's most challenging case yet: One pitting a drug-addicted mother against her daughter's newly rich grandfather in a contentious custody case that leads to criminal accusations and ultimately murder. Madriani takes on the case of Jonah Hale, an elderly man in terrible straits. As a result of their only child Jessica's longtime drug addiction, Jonah and his wife have been raising their eight-year-old granddaughter, Amanda. On the heels of Jonah's multimillion-dollar state lottery win, Jessica revives her interest in mothering.

Warning Signs

The brutal slaying of Boulder's controversial DA strikes deep in the heart of everything clinical psychologist Alan Gregory holds dear: after all, Gregory's wife Lauren worked for the dead man. But the bloodied body is just the first in a series of high-voltage incidents in a gripping story of crime and punishment, tragedy and retribution.

Everything to Lose: A Novel

While driving along a suburban back road, Hilary Blum, who's just lost her job and whose deadbeat husband has left her alone to care for her son with Asperger's, witnesses a freakish accident. A car ahead of her careens down a hill and slams into a tree. Stopping to help, she discovers the driver dead - and a satchel stuffed with a half a million dollars.

Publisher's Summary

Meet Chick Best - a middle-aged, self-absorbed, disaffected, California dot.com millionaire. Other than his house and high-priced foreign cars, Chick's most expensive possession is his trophy wife, Evelyn.

Evelyn is good at spending Chick's money, money that has pretty much run out. His other personal possession is his drug-addled 16-year-old daughter, Melissa. Though concerned about his life and family, Chick resigns himself to a miserable state of acceptance.

That is, until he, Evelyn, and Melissa take a Christmas vacation in Maui. With this, Chick's life changes. He experiences unrequited love at first sight when he observes Paige Ellis. His obsession, exceeded only by his need to possess her, isn't diminished when he learns that she is happily married. Instead, he befriends Paige and her near-perfect husband, Chandler.

A short time later, Chick's obsession compels him to drive to Paige's house, where he runs down and kills Chandler in a drug-store parking lot. He attends the husband's funeral, feigning compassion for Paige. Several months later, with his lust for Paige in high gear, Chick stages a carjacking and murders Evelyn. Evidence that Chick has planted in and around the car implicates an ex-convict.

When he calls Paige with the news of Evelyn's murder, she returns the favor and comes to comfort Chick in what she thinks is his time of need. Chick, however, has other ideas. Will Paige learn the truth before it's too late?

Based on the book description, I was optimistic that it would be at least an entertaining story. However, when the protagonist commits a reprehensible crime, I lost all interest. There is nothing 'sympathetic' about this character, and I ceased to care about him. The author's forward mentioned that his publisher/agent advised against publishing this book, and I must agree with them.

I could not bring myself to finish this book after about an hour into it. I typically love works by this author, but I could not listen any further. The characters had no likable qualities. I felt like I had stepped back a few decades and was reading the screenplay of "10." Maybe there is a worthwhile story in there somewhere, I couldn't get to it....

Would you try another book from Stephen J. Cannell and/or Scott Brick?

worried about them now. I need to LIKE the protagonist. doesn't mean they have to be perfect, but must have some redeeming qualities. I could't listen to this book because i couldn't stand the protagonist.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Would you try another book from Stephen J. Cannell and/or Scott Brick?

I have read other Cannell books and loved them. He is a talented author, Which is why I chose this one. Cannell says in the beginning he wanted to write this for years. I can't imagine why. The story was tedious and the characters were extremely unlikeable. I had to fight to finish it. Yulk. As for Brick, as others have said, he could read the phone book and I would buy it!

Telling the story from two points of view might have worked better if they had been used evenly. The vast majority of the story is told by the antagonist at the beginning, and the protagonist doesn't beginning telling that side of the story until much later. The antagonist was shallow and unlikable, so this lopsided approach had me spending too much time evaluating whether I should even keep reading.

Has At First Sight turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not at all. I will also read other Cannell books. Based on the foreword, I think this was a fluke.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Scott Brick was actually a good choice. He did condescending and snobbish very well.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Surprise and anger at the antagonist's world views. The stereotypes he perpetuated had my eyes rolling. I almost stopped listening after hearing him describe a black man's 'ghetto accent'. Ugh.

I loved it. Some stories you listen too leave your mind wandering off during slow periods; this story really kept my attention. It was a unique approach of telling the story through the antaganists view point. When it starts you believe Chic Best who is the main character is the protagonsit and you start off liking him and pulling for him. As the story progress and his life and plans really start pulling apart you feel for him at first but by the end you really learn his true nature. I listen while riding to and from work and I found myself anxious to get back to the book to hear what would happen next.

I'm never unhappy with a Stephen J. Cannell book, and this one doesn't disappoint! As usual, Scott Brick does a wonderful job. He's the true voice. of Cannell. This story was so compelling that I could hardly stop listening. One of his best!

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